Bamboo vs. Papyrus
Fake News vs. Truth

The following is one of the famous and essential quotes about democracy attributed by some to Thomas Jefferson. “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” The precise author of those words is debatable. What is important is the issue of an informed and educated electorate.

Tragically, an informed and educated electorate assumes that those elected to run our government are both. However, many in Washington lack even an elementary school level of knowledge. Here are some idiotic and inane comments made by several members of Congress regarding January 6th?

Here is another example. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claims that “the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon.” She also lacks basic grammar skills. The sentence about evidence of a plane makes no sense grammatically.

Greene also claims that the “Camp Fire” wildfire in California in 2018 was due to Gov. Jerry Brown, California politicians, and the Israeli government. Greene alleges that Israel sent a laser beam to California to clear land with a wildfire so a high-speed railroad could use the land. The wildfire covered 153,336 acres, which resulted in nearly 20,000 buildings destroyed and the deaths of some 85 people.

Rep. Greene, a QAnon devotee, and a vast majority of Republicans believe that Trump won the election, but it was stolen from him. The Arizona legislature hired a Florida cybersecurity company called Cyber Ninjas to audit the Maricopa, AZ ballots of the last election. The Cyber Ninjas recount will cost Arizona $150,000 even though the ballots were already counted twice. The president of Cyber Ninjas, Doug Logan, asserted, “The parallels between the statistical analysis of Venezuela and this year’s election are astonishing.” Twitter removed Logan’s account due to his false allegations.

Logan claims that there are 200,000 votes for Trump, and he will find them. His ninjas are scanning ballots with UV light to detect fraudulent ones. They are also looking for bamboo fibers in some ballots.

A Cyber Ninja

Logan asserts that the Chinese conspired with Joe Biden to assure that he would be elected. What Biden did was to have 40,000 ballots sent from Beijing to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Late on election night, some Biden supporters took the ballots from a Chinese stealth plane to Maricopa’s board of elections headquarters.

The Cyber Ninjas are checking the 2.1 million ballots and have done 350-400,000 in the past month. At this rate, they will hopefully complete their audit by Halloween. It amazes me how many people buy into this nonsense. America does need an informed citizenry. Obviously, many, from Donald the Dumb down to some members of the House of Representatives, are either ill-informed, dumb, or a combination of both.

It is a stretch to believe that the Chinese helped Biden get 40,000 bamboo ballots on election night. However, I want to be clear about this. I have never imported bamboo ballots from China or anywhere else. Even when I was elected to the Dixon, IL school board, there were never any bamboo ballots flown in from China.

If you look carefully at the background of my web page, it is not bamboo. It consists of woven Egyptian papyrus. I have been to Egypt a couple of times. On one trip, I went to the Valley of the Kings. My guide took me to the various burial chambers for a dozen or more pharaohs, including that of King Tutankhamen’s tomb. Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s burial chamber in 1922.

King Tut

King Tut ruled Egypt in the 14th century BCE. Nefertiti was his step-mother, and he ruled for only a decade. It was interesting, but my guide took me to Deir El Medina, a nearby town, where he and his family lived for several generations. His great grandfather had worked for Carter.

This photo is of the royal throne of King Tut. Ankhesenamun, his wife, is reaching out to him.

Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun

My guide introduced me to his parents. His father told me about Carter giving a papyrus tablet to his father. Carter had found it in Tut’s tomb. His father had translated it for Carter in 1922. For some reason, Carter didn’t want it and gave it to my guide’s grandfather. My guide’s father claims that this photo is of his father and Carter.

Carter and my tour guide’s grandfather

After an extended history lesson by my guide’s father, he showed me the papyrus tablet late that evening. He said that I should look closely at the woven papyrus. Actually, he allowed me to hold it for a couple of minutes. I carefully held the ancient pad of papyrus. Interestingly, something came over me. The father of my tour asked me how I felt.

I replied that it felt like I was holding something animistic. The papyrus tablet seemed to have been imbued with some sort of divine presence. The father’s smile indicated that the papyrus and I were linked spiritually.

My guide’s father said that King Tutankhamen would help me if I used the woven papyrus on my webpage. It would be the medium by which Tut could communicate with me. I have used the woven papyrus background for years. Before returning to the States, I stopped at the Old Cataract Hotel and wrote down that evening at Deir El Medina.

Therefore, the Cyber Ninjas’ quest to find bamboo ballots is nonsense. However, my woven papyrus is how King Tutankhamun communicates with me. He reaches out to me several times a month in an attempt to assist me on my journey down the yellow brick road of life.